Stay up with the lastest search engine information and receive useful information on generating business from your website in free Tips!

Due to changes in effective Web Marketing techniques, Ask-Susan Tips are now available on Facebook. Become a fan of Ask-Susan to receive regular updates or sign up for the newsletter.

Listed below are summaries of older (old!) articles. The more recent ones are listed in the left column.

Measuring Success (August 2003)
This month I am honored to have a guest writer. He explains how to measure your success.

How would you like to see a 33% increase in efficiency?

Getting Visitors to Contact You ( July 2003)
Congratulations! You've attracted visitors to your Web site. Now you want them to go to the Contact Page to e-mail or call you for more information, to arrange a meeting, or place an order (for example).

But how do you get them to that page? Find out...

Google is on the Cover of Forbes (June 2003)
Since September 2002 I have been running a small advertisement on Google for this e-mail newsletter with a link to sitesofboston.com. I have attracted 93 visitors, gained 29 new subscribers and I paid just $5.69.

Latest Search Engine Data (May 2003)
"The latest data on the number of searches per search engines shows that Google provides..." Includes a great chart.

Spam Liberation (May 2003)
On March 14th I stopped receiving spam e-mail in my inbox without losing e-mails from new friends and clients. Find out how I did it.

Links, not submitting, is the key to success (April 2003)
Table of Contents
-- Links, not submitting, is the key to success
-- What is a link?
-- Where can I get links?
-- What do I do to get a link?
-- What should the link say?
-- Avoiding link farms

Hits vs Visits (April 2003)
This article contains:
-- Question of the month: Are Hits the same as Visits?
-- Definition of Hits and Visits
-- Sample report from Urchin
-- Buyer beware - be sure to ask: visits or hits?

Using Traffic Data to Increase Sales from Your Web Site (March 2003)
The WebTrends Live report provides many types of data. Here I identify three sets of data that are particularly useful. For each, I describe how to interpret the data and how to use it to improve your website.

Increase Sales from Your Web Site (Feb 2003)
If you provide services or custom items, and the purpose of your website is to generate leads, then your Web site should encourage visitors to contact you by phone, fax, e-mail, or by filling out an on-line form. You can then qualify the leads and continue the sales process to turn them into customers. You may be getting a lot of visitors, but few leads. Why?

If you're selling items on-line, you want people to purchase many items and come back often. You may be getting a lot of visitors, but few sales. Why?

Small is Beautiful - at least on the Web (January 2002)
In the Business and Money section of the January 5th Sunday Boston Globe, you may have noticed this article in the "Business buzz list" by D.C. Denison. Includes results from a Small Business Administration study: ''E-Biz.com: Strategies for Small Business Success''.

Web Ads that Work - 2 Case Studies (December 2002)
In the first case study we compare pricing and number of pay per click visitors for both Overture and Google AdWords over a 5 month period. In the second case study we learn that costs can quickly get out of control and how to manage them.

Two Steps to Success (November 2002)
On October 11th Yahoo! changed the way it determines which websites it lists when someone does a search. Yahoo! now..

News Flash - Yahoo Changes (October 11, 2002)
There is big news in the search engine world so I'm sending you an extra "Tip" this month. Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), the most popular search tool has changed their listings. They no longer separate the website listings that come from Yahoo's paid directory and the results from Google. What does this mean to you?

Pay Per Click - Overture - Get listed first (October 2002)
Did you know that there is a guaranteed way to get your website listed on the first page of Yahoo! and Google? Learn more about "pay per click".

Key Phrases, The key to maximizing visitors (September 2002)
Some people optimize their website with metatags and still don't appear in the search engine listings on Yahoo! or Google. Others are on the first page of the search engines and still get no visitors to their Web site. Why? They haven't picked the right key phrases. Includes an example to show how to pick the right key phrases and how to use them to increase business.

Yahoo! - The King of Referrals (August 2002)
Recent reports show that Yahoo! sends more visitors to websites then any other search engine. Google is a close second in sending search referrals. Together they account for about 2/3 of the referrals to websites through search engines. How can you use this information to get more business through your website?

Google - The King of Search Hours (July 2002)
Recent reports show that people spent nearly 13 million hours in March 2002 using Google to search the Web. This is about twice as many hours as the nearest competitor: Yahoo! How can you use this information to improve your business?

Don't let your website turn into a Porno site! (June 2002)
Imagine how you would feel if someone typed in your website name and found a porno site. In the last month I've heard three real life stories of business website names being "taken over" by others, to the detriment of all the companies. How to avoid this nightmare.

Changing your e-mail address when you have an e-mail alias' (March 2002)
If you don't make both of these changes you will lose e-mail and may even lose your domain name.

Changing website hosting companies (March 2002)
One client moved his site to a new hosting company and his form didn't work for months, he was wondering why no one was contacting him.

Tired of waiting for websites to load? (Nov 2001)
Find out what high speed internet access is available at your location.

More search engines are charging $s to get listed (Nov 2001)
The window of opportunity for small businesses to establish their position in the search engines (and directories) inexpensively is closing quickly.

What should you be sure to include in an ad? (Nov 2001)
I ran an advertisement two weeks in a row. Due to an error …

Protecting your website (Nov 2001)
I received this e-mail from a client whose website is hosted by another company: "Our website is gone and it now says "under construction". Can you help?"

What day to send your e-mail newsletter (Nov 2001)
A higher percentage of e-mails are opened on …

Learn more about Susan Hankins or our Web site marketing services.